Health Interview Surveys (HIS) represent an efficient source of information for presenting the use of medical services, such as:

• consultation of doctors/dentists: number of persons visiting a doctor and a dentist
• hospitalisation: number of persons who were hospitalized for less or more than one day
• preventive care: number of women who had a breast cancer test (mammography) or a cervical cancer test

These indicators are expressed as percentages within population layers defined by the background variables: sex, age group and activity status; respectively educational level. These percentages were not statistical adjusted for interacting effects between the background variables.

For the definition of the educational level, the ISCED classification was used. For some countries a mapping between a national coding system and the ISCED levels was defined. See also the document on background variables in "Annex" at the bottom of the page.

The data come from non-harmonised national surveys and the countries were asked to post-harmonise the data according to the guidelines described in annex Guidelines for HIS 2004 at the bottom of the page.

The HIS data are available for almost all EU Member States (except Luxembourg) and for Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

The coverage is very diverse depending on the indicator. A tabular overview is given in annex Coverage by country at the bottom of this page.

For the educational level the ISCED-1997 classification was followed by most of the countries:

• pre-primary and primary (ISCED 0-1)
• lower secondary or second stage of basic education (ISCED 2)
• upper secondary (ISCED 3)
• post secondary and tertiary (ISCED (4-6)

For further details see also the overview_background_variables in "Annex" at the bottom of the page.

The ISCED-97 classification is available via our classification server Ramon.

Eurostat collects aggregated survey data on 18 HIS topics according to 4 background variables. These items are integrated into the national health interview surveys.

For a general description of the Health Interview Surveys (HIS) and for specifications by country see annex Guidelines for HIS 2004 at the bottom of the page.

The main indicators presented in this domain comprise:

Consultation of doctors/dentists:

• the number of persons who consulted a medical doctor (including general practitioners, specialists) during the past 12 months
• the number of persons who consulted a dentist or orthodontist during the past 12 months

In-patient care:

• the number of persons who were hospitalised for more than one day

Day-patient care:

• the number of persons who were hospitalised for one day or less

Preventive care:

• the number of women who had a breast cancer test (mammography)
• the number of women who had a cervical cancer test

Data are expressed as relative percentages within population groups defined by the background variables:

• sex, age groups (10-years intervals) and activity status (economically active / non-active)
• sex, age groups (10-years intervals) and educational level (according ISCED 97)

For most countries the population covered consists of all persons aged 15 years old and over.

Persons aged 15 years old; and over; For some countries there exists an upper age limit as well.

The population aged 15 and more living in private households and for some countries also in institutions like homes for the elderly.

For specifications by country see HIS_2004_surveys in "Annex" at the bottom of the page.

EU-27 without Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland

The HIS data are collected in different years depending on the country, going from 1996 to 2003. A tabular overview is given in annex HIS 2004 Surveys at the bottom of the page.

Not applicable

The 2004 data collection round refers to years 1999-2003.

Countries submit data to Eurostat on the basis of a gentlemen's agreement established in the framework Eurostat's Working Group on "Public Health Statistics".

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Not applicable.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Dissemination format') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

There is no fixed periodicity in these kinds of health surveys. Very few countries have a yearly survey on these topics. A tabular overview is given in annex  HIS 2004 Surveys at the bottom of the page.

None

Please consult free data on-line or refer to contact details.

The general guidelines on the production of the HIS indicators are described in guidelines_HIS_2004 (See annex at the bottom of the page).

Methodological aspects, as well as answers to frequently asked questions are for most surveys available on the HIS/HES database.

A methodological comparison is available in HIS_2004_surveys (See annex at the bottom of the page).

Please see annex "Footnotes" at the bottom of this page.

Not all national surveys are performed in the same period and, thus, not all results are available at the same time.

The other collections in the public health domain of Eurostat offer sometimes comparable tables : see the data in " public health / health care".

The results of the previous HIS round (1997-2000 surveys) are published as "Detailed tables: Health in Europe - Results from 1997-2000 surveys".

Not applicable

The published data are final, i.e. no revision is expected. The actual HIS data have to be seen as one shot exercises without revision. A new project on a standardized European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) will better formalize and harmonize the whole approach. The EHIS is currently held every 5 years and the latest implementation is taking place in the period 2007-2008.

The data are collected via national surveys.

The surveys are based on a sample of individuals or households. For the definition of the samples, different stratification variables are used like geographic area, age, degree of urbanisation, etc.. Some samples include fully or partly institutional population.

For specifications by country see annex HIS 2004 Surveys at the bottom of the page.

Data are collected via questionnaires. The questioning might be done via face-to-face interviews, by phone or a by a combination of these means, depending on the country.

Comparisons with the previous data collection round and with some similar data in Eurostat's health care statistics.

The strata sizes of the different samples were calculated as well as the missing percentages on the answer. Flags for eliminating too small strata and for indicating unreliable strata were applied according the following thresholds:

• not published if sample size less than 20 or item non-response exceeds 50 %;
• flag "u: unreliable": if sample size between 20 and 49 or item non-response between 20 % - 50 %.

In addition flags have been set for the following cases:

• the relative frequency is more than 99 % (to eliminate)
• flag "i": the totals/aggregates by activity status and the totals/aggregates by educational level differ more than 5 % (See country-specific footnotes in the footnotes HIS in "Annex" at the bottom of the page.

Because of the differences in methodologies and time periods and due to the incomplete coverage of the recommended health items, no EU aggregates are calculated.

Eurostat collected aggregated survey data for most of the countries. In this context, a form of ad-hoc weighting by sex and age group based on a distribution specified by the country was applied for Ireland and Portugal. For some countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Iceland and Switzerland), individual data were received and a weighted distribution with the weights specified for each person in the sample was applied. No other adjustments were performed on the national data. 

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